Saturday, April 07, 2012

You don't have to receive those bulky, ugly, newsprint election "pamphlets" in the snail mail! Go to this San Francisco Department of Elections link and you can sign up to get your election materials over the 'net.

For my friends from elsewhere: these election books are one of California's growth industries. We have a lot of elections. Most of these include a lot of politician- and voter-proposed initiatives and referendums. (Hey, I'm working for one right now. They are not all bad.) Spokespeople, for and against, get to weigh in on these measures in the election book -- and I do mean "weigh" -- these things can run over 100 pages. They also have to include the full text of any proposed law.

There comes a time when transparency becomes just junk mail. Many of us have got to the point that we view the arrival of the election books as akin to the arrival of telephone directories -- just waste paper, to be carried straight to the recycle bin.

I'll opine that sending the books online may reduce their influence (if they still have any.) It may make us voters more dependent on "news" media and ads than we already are. But it has got to be good for the trees, even if bad for the post office!

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What's this blog about?

My musings on current events, current projects, current anxieties and current delights.

I started this under the Bush regime when any grain of sand thrown into the gears of the over-reaching imperial state seemed worthwhile.

I have worked to elect more and better Democrats -- and to hammer the shit out of them once we get them in office so they do the things their constituents want and need. It's a big job.

I have endured the dashed potential for a more transformational regime under Obama. The man has made himself an accomplice in the imperial crimes of his predecessor as well as committing his own. He has also almost certainly been the most progressive president most of us will live to see. I fear we'll look back on his years in office with mild gratitude for a respite from national leadership that was habitually stupid and vicious, as well as wrong.

Visitors here will find a lot of commentary on books I'm reading. I am very intentionally reading intensively offline these days. When it feels hard to find direction, it's time to learn something new.

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About Me

I'm a progressive political activist who runs trails and climbs mountains whenever any are available. I've had the privilege to work for justice in Central America (Nicaragua and El Salvador), in South Africa, in the fields of California with the United Farmworkers Union, and in the cities and schools of my own country. I'm a Christian of the Episcopalian flavor; we think and argue a lot. For work, I've done a bit of it all: run an old fashioned switch-board; remodeled buildings and poured concrete; edited and published periodicals, reports and books; and organized for electoral campaigns. I am currently an independent consultant to organizations seeking "help when you have to make a fight."